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| Warp Mishaps | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 17 2014, 07:04 PM (1,157 Views) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kwak | Feb 19 2014, 07:49 PM Post #11 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Sous Chef
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Here's an idea I have for organization. What if the Navigator was mainly responsible for whether or not events happen/how bad they are/how many occur, but then the events themselves were divided into subtables? These tables could be organized in categories similar to your OP:
But, in addition, each kind of mishap could be keyed to one Bridge Officer who would play a small role in mitigating it, perhaps giving bonuses against rolling the worst stuff on the table (Or just preventing penalties). Like, the Pilot physically moves the ship away from turbulent areas of Warp, the Science Officer keeps the Gellar Field strong, the Captain's presence keeps the crew's minds strong, etc. It could be something like:
That way, we could go all out in these tables and have a chance of your ship straight up exploding (or worse) - it's just a very small chance provided your crew is competent. It gets every player invested in the Navigator's role, since they might be the one who has to clean up the mess. It also rewards parties who make sure all the bases are covered with more reliable travel. I'll try to quit hammering this point, but this just seems like a convenient way to organize the ideas. Then again, if the problems were organized this way the corresponding officers would be resolving them anyway after they happen, so maybe this prevention step is redundant. Plus it could be imbalancing if, say, a poor Tactical Officer results in stronger Daemons... What do you guys think? |
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| Soulblazer_87 | Feb 20 2014, 06:03 AM Post #12 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The only, literally only, objection to this, Kwak, is how it complicates things. Mind you, I'm not against complicated stuff (and it's certainly going to be a challenge when the TO has to choose whether to help against the 'huge ship attacking us' or the 'demons that appeared onboard'), but some people like their game simple. If I could, I'd say; create both systems. A simpler 'one roll and you're done' as well as a more complicated 'each PC has a station that /matters/ in the end'. This way, a SM could choose 'go with the simpler, quicker system' to resolve such mishaps and get on with the story, or to 'get down and dirty' and have the players go through a veritable Odyssey to get to wherever they want to go. As far as the system you proposed goes; Depending on each officer and the degrees of 'how badly you just failed', the threats could escalate. This way, how experienced or inexperienced an Officer is, is irrelevant; the threat is the same, whether they are high or low level. Besides, some Officers might be better at doing certain things, weaker at others. This complicates things somewhat, but it should be doable. |
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| Kwak | Feb 20 2014, 02:36 PM Post #13 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Sous Chef
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That's a good point. Most of the time, Warp Travel isn't expected to be its own adventure, and having an extra step kinda gets in the way of actually solving the problem, which is the best way to get players involved anyway. Well, how about the table organization? I think that's a pretty solid division of the kinds of bad stuff, Officer shenanigans aside. |
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| Soulblazer_87 | Feb 20 2014, 03:48 PM Post #14 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Well, the simpler system would ideally only have one table, a la Perils Of The Warp, where everything's sort of 'dumped' into it and the players deal with whatever was rolled. Quick, easy, lets the party move on to bigger, better and more important things. The more complex one, I imagine it making that 3k3-9k9 roll Divergent Reality proposed and, for every double that is rolled, roll one dice for the appropriate 'department' of the ship, to see what goes wrong. Then, you roll to see what precisely happens. This would mean a more 'gritty', more 'involved' situation. Ideal for when the PCs themselves do the piloting, or when travelling through the Warp is part of the campaign itself (i.e. Odyssey, Lost In Space etc etc). It would 'force' players to be involved, while at the same time giving even the least 'apparent' players a chance to shine at what they do best. Such a system would, I imagine, use tables similar to the Critical Damage chart; roll one dice to see what gets hit, then check to see how badly things went. For that to happen, we should divide each 'even't according to what aspect of the ship it affects (not necessarily its commanding officer), with some of them possibly 'crossing over' and affecting more than one aspect. Opinions? |
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| Kwak | Feb 20 2014, 09:56 PM Post #15 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Sous Chef
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Ohhhh ok, I'm with you. I just figured you and DR had agreed on multiple tables judging from his OP. The thing about two systems is, wouldn't the one currently in 2.2 count as a simpler one? What's it missing currently? | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Divergent Reality | Feb 21 2014, 06:27 AM Post #16 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Quality Not Guaranteed!
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I was thinking. Of a multiple table system. Something with more options than the current. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Divergent Reality | Feb 21 2014, 11:00 AM Post #17 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Quality Not Guaranteed!
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Now that I am on something other than a phone I can more easily express my thoughts. What I was thinking for a mishap table was something that had a wide range of generic effects, starting from single minor incidents, ramping up to several concurrent incidents of varying strength. My thought was to have something that starts with pretty benign spooks be it nightmares, extra bendy shadows that attempt to grab at things, doors that wont unlock, sensor apparition, etc. Medium level problems: non-functioning semi important parts of the ship, bouts of insanity, exterior warp phenomena to contend with either through minor ship combat, evasive action or other stuff. Major problems: things like a random 100m cube of a ship being removed, major daemonic incursion/ mass insanity, ramming another random ship/entity, exiting the warp randomly at someplace unexpected. What I was imagining were several lists for minor, moderate and major problems to encounter. Be it an encounter outside the ship, something happening to the workings of the ship, or something that happens to the crew. For a chart I was thinking something with a ramp up sort of like this: Smooth Sailing 1 minor event, roll for which part (crew, ship, space) 2 minor events, roll twice for which parts 1 moderate, roll for which part 3 minor events, roll three times for which parts 1 moderate and 1 minor, roll for which parts and the effects 2 moderate, roll for which parts 1 major, 2 minor 1 major, 1 moderate 3 moderate 2 major Time travel event 3 major Something more wacky at this point. For each portion of the ship that can be affected, there will be a minor, moderate and major. That is a rough look. I was thinking throwing in more mixed up events, like shuffling the number of minor and moderate and major events that can be combined. |
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| Soulblazer_87 | Feb 21 2014, 03:06 PM Post #18 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Going by Kwak's original table of 'different locations of the ship', I suggest the following possible 'locations' of something going wrong. For each of the 10 locations, there could be one of ten actual events, leading to a possible 100 'events'. It is possible to deal with these 'issues' individually, together, or trust a commanding officer. In either case, a Commanding Officer can provide a general bonus to everyone dealing with a specific event, but may only assist in one event at a time and it takes the entirety of their attention (so you can't repair shields while directing mechanics to repair the engines). Using this system, you have 100 different 'events' that are all 2 dice rolls away, cutting down on the 'let me roll for XXXX', a definite weight on every SM. We could use generic items/monsters/events with some basic Tests already in place so that, while it will involve the players, they'll be able to get through it with little fuss. For example, in the 'Combat' variety, I'm sure we can make 3 different entities to fight off in the Warp, 3 groups of Minions (with one or two abilities that will be easily exchangeable) etcetera etcetera. And possibly at least one 'Major Fuck You' event in every category (think Space Hulk occurences) that would take a LOT of work to get through. I.E.; "You all get boarded with 12 Minions led by 2 Mortal Heroes of an enemy type per 3 BP of the ship". A hard situation for all but the more resourceful and powerful of heroes to deal with, especially since it would end up as a war of attrition; the heroes are individually stronger, but with so many enemies, they'd end up getting a beating. |
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| Kwak | Feb 21 2014, 03:26 PM Post #19 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Sous Chef
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I like Divergent's idea of the escalating "3 minor 1 major" chart, especially if we keep the results reasonably slim like Soulblazer suggests. By combining smaller effects, plus a little GM improvisation to tie the results together, we can obfuscate the simplicity and keep things from getting stale or predictable. Rolling "your librarium broke" along with "blood weeps from walls", you could make it a unique "Librarium is doing nothing but spurting blood out infinitely." |
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| Soulblazer_87 | Feb 21 2014, 03:57 PM Post #20 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Quite so, Kwak. I quite like this idea. Has potential for 'creepiness' as well as 'danger'. Plus some wacky because, hey, gotta have fun too. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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